A dozen UCSD art students, San Diego Councilwoman
Donna Frye, Fox News, the San Diego Department of
Environmental Health, the Electric Flyes Club and
others all gathered in the Mission Bay Landfill site
in San Diego for this feral dog release on March 4-5.
The dogs were sent to investigate possible Volatile
Organic Compound (VOC) emissions from the site due
to its 50+ year history as an industrial waste dumping
ground used by military industry in the immediate
vicinity.

The goal of this course is to adapt and release a
feral robotic dog (or other companion robot) on a
contaminated site nearby. The feral robot will ‘sniff
out the contaminants on the site and you will communicate
the site conditions to interested community members.

Working to equip a toy robot with chemical sensors
focused on the harmful chemical Trichloroethylene
(TCE), high levels of which have been found near several
Ithaca homes. Dogs are being reengineered, and will
be released to scout the sites.

Students in the Mechanical Engineering department
are currently developing new breeds of Feral Robotic
Dogs. These new hacks include the use of both the
Jimmy Neutron Godard available via KB Stores Online
as well as the I-Cybie from Tyco.

Over the course of this class students will also be
dedicated to refining new and more complex behaviors
between each dog and its environment.

The Feral Robotics Workshop was invited to expand
its ideas into a course syllabus at Pratt Institute.
Students began with an introduction to electronic
and mechanical systems and as well as a history of
the Open Source movement. The class will culminate
in a release in the Brooklyn area.

A dozen students between the ages of 12 and 15, participated
in a lab environment where they confronted the immediate
pollutants in their surroundings using the Feral Dog
Project. Manufacturing Gas Plants were used between
the 1800's and mid 1900's before the development of
natural gas systems, to convert coal and oil into
gas for heating, lighting and cooking. Byproducts
of this early production process included contaminants
such as tar and purified wastes. Official studies
of the site began in early June and the field work
was completed in August of 2002. The specific objectives
of the study were to determine the nature and the
extent of contamination present at the site.

Fourteen students gathered at the Florida Film Festival
headquarters to adapt a pack of commercially available
toy robotic dog -- to upgrade the raison d'etre of
their robots. They equipped the toys with a new nose
(environment toxin sensor), and a new brain (microprocessor),
and have mechanically upgraded (hotroded) the dogs
so they can now navigate any outdoor terrain. The
new brain changes the dogs behavior : each is now
programmed to follow concentration gradients of the
material (VOCs*) they are sensing i.e. they appear
to be sniffing out a toxic trail.

Students from multiple departments at Yale University
were assembled to initial research and development
of the dog project. Tasks completed included the production
of the first wave of Open Source Tutorials. Students
also laid the groundwork for a number of subsequent
releases.

INEEL, or Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory
was a Navy Bombing Range in World War II. In 1949
the first reactor was constructed at the site. In
1953, the first nuclear waste was stored there. Eventually
housed 52 total reactors, more in one place than anywhere
else in the world. INEEL has had 27 meltdowns, 16
of which were totally unintentional. In 1961 the first
fatal nuclear accident sent a nuclear cloud into the
Snake River Valley for thirty days. Three workers
were killed and were so heavily contaminated with
radioactivity that they had to be buried in sealed,
lead-lined coffins.